Winning The Battle Royale of Life: A Necro Story Review

By Manuel

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 5, PC (Steam)

I'm a sucker for RPGs with darker themes and vibes, and today we're going to be looking at one that I've been following for about a year in development. Coming to us by way of developer/publisher Rablo Games, Necro Story is a game that mixes those aforementioned themes with some light-hearted humor. It's available now on most major platforms, and we're going to be taking a look at the version on the Nintendo Switch today. There's a lot to cover in this one, so let's dive right in!

Necro Story puts you into the shoes of a Necromancer named Jaimus who has just awakened from a spell-induced slumber. Upon awakening, he learns that humanity has been completely wiped out, and a ghost named Vivi is tasking him with literally bringing humanity back from the point of total extinction. This would normally be an easy job for a Necromancer, but a world full of zombies isn't exactly what Vivi had in mind. The quest to revive humanity requires the gathering of several plot McGuffins, and the journey involves our Necromancer friend revisiting several of his old demon buddies. His powers increase, his army of followers grow, and Vivi constantly remains a ghostly thorn in his side. As the game progresses you learn more about why humanity was ultimately destroyed, and you also uncover secrets behind why you were put to sleep in the first place. It's a surprisingly deep story that's full of funny dialogue and cutscenes, but it probably isn't as deep as it could've been. Humanity is no more, and your followers are all mute monsters you previously defeated. This leaves Vivi as your only true companion, and the only one who is able to easily move things forward through exposition and plot focus. This could easily become a limitation that kills the game's story, and admittedly it sometimes is, but I think this format helps streamline things quite a bit. There isn't a lot of fluff or side stories to sift through, and you don't have to worry about meeting and befriending a large cast of characters. Some players may still long for more character interaction, but I think the gameplay largely makes up for anything that may be lacking. Speaking of which, let's move on to discuss that next.

At its heart, Necro Story is an RPG with auto-battler elements. You assemble a party of up to six, with your party members made up of the Necromancer (who is mandatory), Vivi, and any monsters you may have recruited along the way. Each character levels up in a traditional way, and there is limited inventory management as well. There's a bit more to the core battle concept, but we'll get there in just a bit. Much of the game plays like a standard RPG in that it has an overworld, locations on said overworld that lead to more extensive areas to explore, and random encounters and treasure scattered throughout. There are also shops, optional areas, and plenty of secrets scattered about as well. Each of the game's dungeons has several floors to them, and you progress through them in a sort of one-way fashion. By that I mean that there isn't much backtracking to be had here, but you can fast travel to previously visited locations via save points if you feel you missed something along the way. Healing isn't something that you can do on your own very easily, and it's most often done via save points. Towns aren't really a thing at all in this game, but that was probably a given considering the state of humanity. Random battles take place on both the overworld maps, and within dungeon areas, and are represented by a ball of black mist that will chase you if you get too close. Touching these balls of mist moves you to a battle screen, and it's here where things get a bit complicated.

Explaining all of Jaimus' combat abilities is probably far too intense to do within the context of a review, so I'll just touch on the broad strokes. As a Necromancer, you have the ability to cast spells within certain schools of magic. These schools mainly have to do with elemental type attacks, and it's best to pick one or two and put all your skill points solely into relevant spells. You're only able to equip a limited number of spells at any time, and said spells can be used to attack, buff or debuff, or even summon monsters to fight alongside you. MP is consumed with each spell you cast, though you can recover it by defeating enemies, or by performing physical attacks with your staff. Defeated enemies release spirits, and you collect these to charge up your powers further. Once fully charged, you're able to them absorb the soul of a monster in a way that sees them join your party. This mechanic plays out in a Pokémon-like fashion, but you can never control your other party members directly. You can change their stats by giving them certain equipment, but they'll always have a mind of their own when it comes to their actions in battle. Also, while you can only have six party members total, you can actually summon three more monsters via spells. This means you can amass a party as big as nine, but that will rarely be necessary unless you're playing on the highest of difficulty settings. Though the monster collecting mechanic sounds fun, you'll realize that most monsters quickly become obsolete once you enter new areas. There are only a limited number of monsters in the game, and most of them fall under certain types. New fighters, magic uses, and more will appear in each new area you visit, and the cycle of recruiting and leveling up said monsters begins anew in each.

While there are a lot of things I love about Necro Story, it has just as many weak points that kept me from feeling it was a great game. I already mentioned my problems with the monster capturing mechanic, but I also was not a fan of how Jaimus himself levels up. You have access to dozens of spells across several schools of magic, but you'll only ever see a small handful of them in any playthrough. You can easily re-spec your upgrade points to try out another build, but that doesn't change the fact that the magic system limits you to just five core spells at any time by default. There's also a summoning mechanic built into the game that feels very under-utilized. You're able to summon demons that you've made pacts with, but summoning them gets rid of all other party members. Though powerful, the summon monster rarely was more effective than the force of a fully prepared party. I only ever used summons out of curiosity, and I found myself wishing that they were better worked into the actual combat mechanics. Exploration also isn't exactly the most exciting thing the game has to offer, and that's unfortunate since you'll be wandering around outright mazes much of the time. Add to this cryptic secrets that are easily missed due to the fact that they're displayed via random signs, and you'll realize why I started to fall out of love with the game around the halfway point. Even something as simple as navigating the menus is a complicated mess, and I never felt like I was pressing the correct button to do what I wanted. I'm not sure if the developers only deal in PC games, but the control scheme here honestly felt like they had never played a console game before. There is still a lot to appreciate about the game, namely its story and quirky main characters, but it really falls short in ways that seem like they should've been easy to do well in.

Moving away from gameplay, I have to say that I have a love/hate relationship when it comes to the visuals of Necro Story. Right off the bat, I want to acknowledge the cool hand-drawn aesthetic, even though I think it also comes with a limited color palette. No matter where you explore, the world is dark and lifeless. I know that we're in a post-apocalyptic scenario, but the game doesn’t have to look so barebones to convey that. This overall bland feeling extends to the monster designs too. Though they do have a cute, cartoon-y look to them, they also don't stand out very much. It doesn't help that there are a surprising number of palette swaps in a monster roster that barely goes above 50. The same limitation issues exist within the game's environments as well. Caves all have the same look to them, the towers and castles feel uninspired, and the overworld feels like it was made up of random world-building pieces. There are entire dungeons that use the same backgrounds over and over again, sometimes only changing their color. It's not just that things feel repetitive and uninteresting, it's that they just feel all around lazy.

I'd probably be a bit more forgiving on the games visuals, if it weren't for the fact that the game runs very poorly on the Nintendo Switch. Post-release updates have fixed some of the game-breaking issues I experienced pre-launch, but the game still chugs whenever you're in the wider overworld, or when combat gets intense. I'm no stranger to Switch-specific performance issues, but it stings particularly hard here when you factor in the blandness I mentioned earlier. I've never seen such an unimpressive game run so poorly. There never seems to be anything on screen that should put your Switch into life support, but the framerate will still sometimes drop into the single digits. Thanks to this being a slower-paced RPG, the slowdown issues rarely made the game unplayable. That said, no one likes playing a game that runs like garbage, so one has to wonder why this game was released on the Switch at all if it clearly wasn't able to handle it.

I don't think I have a lot to say about Necro Story's sound, but I guess I can at least be glad that the music isn't at hit or miss as the visuals. Don't get me wrong, the sound design is far from good, but it's by no means bad either. Soundtrack-wise, there was not one track that stood out to me, and I have to say that the music mostly felt like it was simply there. I prefer my RPGs to be filled with blood-pumping battle music, somber tunes for the dungeons, and so on, but you get none of that here. Most of the music can be shuffled anywhere within the game at random and it wouldn't make much of a difference. I don't want to make it sound like the music is particularly bad or anything, it just comes off feeling like an afterthought. That's not it either, as there are other issues with the sound design worth mentioning. Sound effects also feel like their missing half the time, and the voice acting was so thin that I wondered why it was even there in the first place. I say "voice acting", but it mainly consists of a grunt or two here or there, and Jaimus calling out spell names. This small bit of voice acting made the silence in the rest of the game stand out even more, though I will at least say that the voice acting is good for what it is.

If there's one positive I can say about Necro Story, it has to be that it all moves along at a rather brisk pace. By this I mean that it never felt like it dragged, and you're always being ushered off to the next plot-relevant area. I'm not sure if the developers realized that many of their dungeons were monotonous, but they thankfully always seemed to wrap themselves up right when the annoyance of repetition was beginning to set in. Beating Necro Story will probably take first time players about ten hours, but there's also a decent amount of replayability to be had. Besides the fact that several hidden secrets that are easily missable, as well as a few difficulty settings to try out, there are also multiple endings that require repeat playthroughs to see. I don't know if everyone would be down to beat a game like this twice, but the options are there if you want. Besides endings, players can try out different builds, different party compositions, and different schools of magic for Jaimus. There's honestly a decent amount of content here, and the game comes in at a very affordable $14.99. I almost feel bad giving it as hard a time I did throughout the review considering how low of a price point the game has, but I can't be faulted for giving my honest opinions.

Even though I'm of the mind that Necro Story is far from a great game, I do think that it's a good one. Fans of monster collecting games, or maybe even RPGs in general, will probably find something to enjoy here. It's a fun game worth experiencing for the story alone, and the gameplay can be fun as long as you're willing to put up with some wonky mechanics from time to time. I would of course have to advise against picking it up on the Nintendo Switch though, as it is barely in a playable state there at the time of this writing. While I can't vouch for the performance of the other versions, I have to assume that they run better than the aging Switch. Grab it on the XBox, PS5, or PC, and I'm sure you'll be fine. Anyway, see you in the next one!

Check Out Necro Story on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/necro-story-switch/

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Story: A
Gameplay: B-
Graphics: B-
Music/Sound: B-
Value: A

Overall: B-

Pros:
+ A fun RPG that mixes together somewhat dark themes with light-hearted humor.
+ The monster capturing mechanic is fun, and there is that "Gotta Catch 'Em All" vibe too.
+ Even though the cast is very limited, Jaimus and Vivi are fun characters that do a good job in driving the plot forward.
+ The visual style is decently impressive, as are the animations.
+ There's quite a bit of content here, and it's definitely worth its current $14.99 price.

Cons:
- Not being able to control your party members directly is a bit of a letdown.
- Having to constantly upgrade your party with better monsters in each area makes the monster capturing mechanic feel like a grind.
- The music and voice acting leave a lot to be desired.
- It can be easy to miss the options that lead to the game's "true" ending. Not everyone will want to play the game again if they miss it.
- Runs extremely poorly on the Switch.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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What kind of game is this?!?!

#NecroStory